the city; the passage which formerly was dangerous for carriages, and the houses filled by butchers, cooks, publicans, &c. is now inhabited by respectable tenants, and may be approached from Cripplegate, Aldermanbury, Basinghall Street, Coleman Street, &c. with the same ease and accommodation as any other place of traffic in the city. This street, and all the tract from Grub Street, as far as Bishopsgate without, was in 1560, occupied by fields, gardens, and a morass. We have in another place given an account of it in the time of Fitz Stephen.

*

WHITECROSS STREET in the city liberty, is a good street, and has among its buildings THE PEACOCK BREWHOUSE, the GREEN YARD, where strayed cattle, &c. are pounded, and where the lord mayor's state coach is kept. Adjoining are Sir THOMAS GRESHAM'S ALMSHOUSES, which were built here in place of those which formerly stood in Broad Street, and were pulled down with Gresham College, to build on the site the Excise Office,

In this street Henry V. founded a guild of St. Giles, which house had been an hospital belonging to a French brotherhood, by the name of St. Giles, Cripplegate. And, upon the suppression of the former guild, the lands belonging to that foundation were transferred to the brotherhood of the new hospital for the relief of the poor.

Here also formerly stood a stone cross, and near it was erected an arch of the same material, under which ran a water-course to the Moor. This being, on account of its narrow current, an annoyance to the inhabitants, was presented at an inquisition held in the 3d year of Edward I. The jury presented the abbot of Ramsey and the prior of the Holy Trinity, "whose predecessors, six preceding years, had built, as the inquisition ran, a certain stone arch at Whyte Croyse, in the ward of Cripplegate, beyond the course of a certain water coming down from Smithfield del Barbi can, in that ward, towards the Moor; which said arch the aforesaid abbot and prior, and their successors, ought to maintain and repair; and which was so streight that the water there could not have its full course, to the annoyance of the inhabitants."

* Vol. II. p. 29.

inhabitants." Hereupon the sheriffs were commanded to distrain the said abbot and convent to mend the said arch.

Near the south end of the street stood a conduit, by which water was conveyed in pipes from Highbury, by John Middleton, one of the executors to Sir William Estfield. The inhabitants castellated it, at their joint expence, in 1483.

GRUB STREET. The name of this street is proverbial for the supposed residence "of authors of the less fortunate tribe, and the trite and illiberal jest of the more favoured."* But it was here that honest JOHN Fox, compiled most of his

Martyrology," and we rather think that here also the ingenious JOHN SPEED formed his Chronicle, and DANIEL DE FOE, his publications.

A remarkable seclusion from the world took place in Grub Street, in the person of HENRY WELBY, Esq. This gentleman was a native of Lincolnshire, where he had an estate of above 1000l. per annum. He possessed, in an eminent degree, the qualifications of a gentleman. Having been a competent time at the University and the Inns of Court, he completed his education by making the tour of Europe. He was happy in the love and esteem of his friends, and indeed of all that knew him, as his heart was warm, and the virtues of it were conspicuous from his many acts of humanity, benevolence, and charity.

When he was about forty years of age, his brother, an abandoned profligate, made an attempt upon his life with at pistol, which not going off, he wrested it from the villain's hand, and found it charged with double bullet. Hence he formed a resolution of retiring from the world; and taking a house in this street, he reserved three rooms for himself; the first for his diet, the second for his lodging, and the third for his study. In these he kept himself so closely retired, that for forty-four years he was never seen by any human creature, except an old female servant that attended him, who had only been permitted to see him in some cases of great necessity. His diet was constantly bread, water gruel, milk, and vegetables, and, when he indulged himself most, the yolk of an egg.

* Pennant,

He

He bought all the new books that were published, most of which, upon a slight examination, he rejected. His time was spent in reading, meditation, and prayer. No Carthusian monk was ever more constant and rigid in his abstinence. His plain garb, his long and silver beard, his mortified and venerable aspect, bespoke him an antient inhabitant of the desart rather than a gentleman of fortune in a populous city. He expended a great part of his income in acts of charity, and was very inquisitive after proper objects. He died October 29, 1636, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and lies buried in St. Giles's church, Cripplegate. The old servant died six days preceding her master. He had a very amiable daughter, who married Sir Christopher Hilliard, a gentleman of Yorkshire; but neither she, nor any of her family, ever saw her father after his retirement.*

Stow informs us that Grub Street, "taking in the whole, is but indifferent, as to its houses and inhabitants; and sufficiently pestered with courts and alleys." It maintains the same character at the present day.

In HANOVER YARD is a house of the architecture which prevailed in the latter end of the reign of queen Elizabeth, and which has been noticed as the residence of GENERAL MONK.

That it could not be General Monk's residence, we beg leave to state the following reasons:

When the general returned from Scotland, we are informed by all the histories of England that his head quarters were at Whitehall; and when the citizens refused the supply which the parliament wished to extort from them, the lord general Monk was ordered to march into the city, when he destroyed the portcullises, and returned to Whitehall.

'When afterwards he marched his army toward the city, and having drawn up the soldiers in Finsbury fields, sent Clarges to atone for his conduct to the citizens, dined at Guildhall, and having communicated to them the copy of a letter sent by him to the parliament at his leaving Whitehall,

*An account of this character is re-printed in the "Phoenix Britannicus."

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